Separated by a common language

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by liberal japonicus

I’m watching the UK meltdown over Peter Mandelson’s friendship with Epstein as well as Andrew Montbatten and am totally astonished that it seems siloed over in Europe. I’m at a loss which youtube videos and articles to share, but I open us this thread for your thoughts. A couple of things I’m wondering that I haven’t seen, understanding this is all speculation, but I’d love to see some pieces making some arguments

  • Who is going to benefit from this, Reform, the Green party or Your Party?
  • What is this going to do to the special relationship?
  • Should we get out the lettuce again for Keir Starmer?

I’m sure there are other questions, but I put this post up to give folks a place to chat.

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Snarki, child of Loki
Snarki, child of Loki
6 hours ago

The Raving Monster Loony Party will finally get a PM!

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wjca
wjca
4 hours ago

I would guess it has no impact on the special relationship. Or what’s left of it these days.

Trump has no loyalty to others, so the fact that, in the UK , other Epstein buddies are getting taken down? Not going to matter much.

Provided they don’t say anything bad about him. Anyone who does that is beyond the pale. If it’s a UK media, he’ll maybe trash them. But if it’s anyone in government, the UK joins his enemies list.

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GftNC
GftNC
3 hours ago

I don’t have a ton of time until I get in later tonight, but I was very struck by this piece by Marina Hyde a couple of days ago, and rather think most feminists agree, particularly with this sentence:

I had a mirthless laugh at the New Statesman’s cover this week, which characterised the Mandelson affair as “the scandal of the century”. Guys, it’s not even the biggest scandal of the scandal.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/feb/06/jeffrey-epstein-scandal-politics-mass-abuse-women-girls

Obviously, we have all (lefty/liberals that is) been discussing this incessantly. I can tell you that in general the consensus among people I know (several of whom are rather involved in Labour) is this, all of which also reflects my opinion:

  1. We foolishly thought that because Mandelson is gay he must have been unaware of all the disgusting sex abuse stuff. The consorting with Epstein when he knew about the conviction etc was certainly very bad, but we thought maybe he didn’t believe it because he’d never seen any sign of it. Ridiculously naive, I now see.
  2. Most of us (not all) reluctantly believed that although Mandelson is a rather brilliant Machiavellian snake, that made him the perfect person to deal with the snake pit in the White House.
  3. Everybody is astounded by the divulging of state economic secrets stuff. None of us would have believed that he was capable of such a thing, given that despite his snakiness we believed that he was, in his way, devoted to Labour and his country (so proud of being Herbert Morrison’s grandson etc). The word treason was bandied about between us, but when I looked it up it seems it doesn’t apply. He continues to say he has done nothing criminal. We shall see.

All I can say is, now that Morgan McSweeney’s gone, I desperately hope this doesn’t take Starmer down. There’s no obvious successor, and the main alternatives are several orders of magnitude worse (i.e. Tories and Reform). But there’s no doubt that Starmer is not in any way cut out to be a politician – it’s been very clear for ages that he’s no good at it.

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russell
russell
2 hours ago

Props to the UK for at least finding it scandalous.

Here in the US it’s more like a national exercise in “la la la la I can’t hear you”

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CaseyL
CaseyL
1 hour ago

Apologies in advance for putting a US-centric spin on this, but what has struck me the most is the NON-impact the Epstein case has had on the US politicians and hangers-on who were Epstein intimates… starting, of course, with the complete waste of protoplasm currently occupying the Oval Office.

Seeing how being close to Epstein, or even adjacent to Epstein, is ending political careers all over Europe while Epstein’s closest associates in the US are untouched has me seething.

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